Petro Gazz turned to Gretchel Soltones and Remy Palma’s crisp hitting to easily repel Cignal, 28-26, 25-18, 25-13, for back-to-back wins yesterday in the Premier Volleyball League All-Filipino Conference at the Philsports Arena in Pasig City.
The power-hitting duo did the most damage as the Angels reasserted their mastery over the same team they swept in last year’s Reinforced Conference finals for a 2-1 win-loss record.
Petro Gazz brushed off a sluggish opening frame with a strong showing in the next two frames to dispose Cignal in one hour and 37 minutes.
Angels head coach Oliver Almadro showered his wards with praises for rising in the occasion against heavyweight teams.
“Well, this is a morale-booster for us. As I said, our first assignments are against big teams. We started our campaign against Creamline, Choco Mucho, then Cignal, so big teams,” he said.
“I told them that we have to get one game at a time and what I said to them, they did it before, they can do it again.”
Palma scored 15 points she collected from 10 kills, four kill blocks and an ace while Soltones pounded in 13 spikes to finish with 14 points for Petro Gazz.
Aiza Maizo-Pontilas had nine points while Djanel Cheng tallied 19 excellent sets that helped the Angels connect 45 hits.
The Angels got a scare in the opening set after allowing the HD Spikers to erase their 24-21 advantage with Rachel Anne Daquis forcing a deuce at 24 with a cross-court hit.
Petro Gazz held set advantage two more times only to allow Cignal to get back with Daquis knotting the frame for the last time at 26. Soltones scored on a hit for the sixth set point advantage of the Angels before Gel Cayuna threw away a point with a hit that went long.
The HD Spikers fell to a 1-3 card.
Ces Molina was the only Cignal player in double figures with 11 points while Daquis ended with nine.
